Hard Life
by missauburnleaf
Summary: "Ever since they had met at the children's home the two of them had been taking care of each other, like sisters. Or lovers." Tauriel and Sigrid are working as escorts to make a living until they meet two very unusual clients, named Kíli and Fíli.
1. Unusual Clients

They always worked together because it was safer this way, calling themselves _Starlet_ and _Pearl_ because none of their clients needed to know their real names.

And there were a lot of rich, middle-aged men (or even older ones) who enjoyed the company of good looking girls who offered their services for the right amount of money.

Like this man with long, wavy dark hair, streaked with gray, they had agreed to meet in the bar where they usually met with their clients before going home (or to a hotel room) with them.

Only that this man didn't want them for himself, but for his nephews, claiming that he was worried about the closeness of the brothers and that it would do them some good _'to meet with such attractive young women_ ', as he put it. It didn't hurt that he even paid them for the short meeting with him, not to mention the money they would get for spending the whole night with the man's nephews.

They could do with the money.

Sigrid (that was _Pearl'_ s real name) had not only to pay her fees for college but also to support her family and Tauriel (as _Starlet_ was called) wanted to become a doctor.

So _Starlet_ and _Pearl_ were sent to the apartment the brothers lived in, wearing very short, very tight dresses (Tauriel in forest green and Sigrid in lake blue) and black nine-inch heels.

A blond young man with shoulder-length, curly hair and a trimmed beard opened the door a crack, wearing tight bleached and destroyed blue jeans and a light brown tank top.

"So you are the _special guests_ my uncle has talked about?" he asked, drawing at his cigarette, studying them. In the background, some very loud and aggressive rock music was playing.

 _Pearl_ and _Starlet_ exchanged a glance. He was rather short, meaning that they were towering over him because of their high heels (although neither Tauriel nor Sigrid was especially tall). When that happened, men normally requested them to take the shoes off, but he didn't.

So, after their initial surprise, _Starlet_ answered, "Yes, that would be us... I'm _Starlet_ and this is _Pearl_. May we come in?"

The blond young man didn't say anything, just opened the door for them completely and the two girls stepped over the threshold.

"I hope you will excuse the disorder... Our uncle only informed us like ten minutes ago that two young ladies would be visiting us," he explained while guiding them through a long, dark and narrow corridor which was crammed with different items like cardboard boxes, skateboards, shoes and bikes, towards a glass door which seemed to be leading to the living room.

"Oh, that's alright," _Pearl_ answered while moving closer to _Starlet_.

Ever since they had met at the children's home (because Sigrid's mother had been institutionalized and her father had been incarcerated whereas Tauriel's mother had committed suicide and her biological father hadn't wanted to take her in) the two of them had been taking care of each other, like sisters. Or lovers.

And then, the blond, young man opened the glass door, ushering them into the smoke-filled living room where another young man with long and wild, dark-brown hair and some designer stubble was sitting on an expensive looking black leather couch, wearing tight black cargo pants and a dark blue tank top, smoking like a chimney while the TV was on (some kind of documentary about wildlife) with the sound turned off because there was very loud music coming from the young men's hi-fi system.

"This is my baby brother, Kíli," the blond young man explained.

 _Starlet_ turned towards the blond one with a raised eyebrow. "And you are..." she tried to coax him into telling them his name.

"Oh, I haven't introduced myself? Sorry, too much dope and booze... I'm Fíli, and, yes, our mother has had a cruel sense of humour... Or maybe she was also high while naming us," he answered which made his younger brother laugh. He had a nice laugh, innocent and carefree.

"Well, she definitely was high, Fee, considering the fact that she was doing her own brothers, she could only have been high like a kite," he answered and to _Pearl_ 's and _Starlet_ 's surprise the blond, young man (Fíli) chuckled before flopping down on the couch next to his brother who immediately rested his head on the other one's shoulder, offering him a glass that appeared to be filled to the brim with whiskey.

The blond one accepted it, brushing his nose against the dark-haired one's temple.

 _Starlet_ and _Pearl_ exchanged another glance, feeling all dressed up and with nowhere to go.

Apparently, the blond young man seemed to remember some of his manners.

"Can we offer you something to drink?" he finally asked _Starlet_ and _Pearl_.

 _Starlet_ sighed. "Well, yes, thank you. I'd like a glass of water," she answered.

" And I'd like some orange juice, if it isn't too much trouble," _Pearl_ added.

The blond young man offered her a lopsided grin. "Oh, no trouble at all. Actually, Kíli and I like to drink our vodka with a splash of orange juice," he explained, jumping up from the couch which caused his brother (who had been leaning on him) to upend face first in the couch.

"Fee!" he complained while propping himself up.

The blond one turned towards him.

"Sorry! Didn't know you were that dependent on me, Kee" he answered.

"Ha ha, very funny," the dark-haired young man shot back while pouting. Then he seemed to notice that he and his brother were still having guests.

"Oh, sorry, I totally forgot about you... If Fíli and I had known that some hot girls would be visiting us, we wouldn't have taken all those drugs," he explained, gesturing towards the coffee table, made from dark oak wood and light marble and on which the remnants of their drug use was still on display: a tea light, a spoon and a syringe as well as a credit card, a handheld mirror and a rolled up five hundred Euro bill.

 _Pearl_ started to feel uncomfortable. Of course, most of their clients were doing drugs (they could tell from their behaviour) and sometimes they were even offered something ' _to get into the mood_ ' (which they always declined), but none of them were so open about it.

Unlike those brothers.

Then the blond one (Fíli) returned with two glasses.

"There you go, please, have a seat," he said while offering the glass with clear liquid to _Starlet_ and the glass with orange liquid to _Pearl_.

"Thank you," they answered simultaneously while sitting down on the leather couch as well.

 _Pearl_ could see that _Starlet_ was carefully sniffing the contents of her glass before taking a sip and she did the same (though they both knew from experience that date-rape drugs didn't have a specific smell or taste, a hard lesson they had learned, ending up in hospital).

The blond young man snorted. "You think I put something into your drinks? Why? I take it that my uncle paid you for having sex with us, meaning that we can do anything we want with you as long as the money is good," he declared.

Immediately _Pearl_ put her glass down onto the coffee table with a loud clank.

"Oh, you think because Tauriel and I are escorts you can do whatever you want with us? That's not true! So, think again, _Blondie_ ," she remarked vehemently.

" _Pearl_!" _Starlet_ hissed and the girl with the caramel coloured curls noticed her mistake. She had revealed her partner's real name.

"Who?" the blond young man asked, frowning.

Before _Pearl_ could response, _Starlet_ took matters into her own hands. "That would be me. My real name is Tauriel, not _Starlet_ ," she revealed.

"And I'm Sigrid. _Pearl_ is just the name I use when working," she added in order to support her friend.

The brother's exchanged a glance before turning towards the two young women.

"We appreciate your honesty. And you should know that neither Fíli nor I will ask for your services in the bedroom tonight... if you get my meaning. You two are not the first hookers our uncle has hired for us and normally we manage to entertain us and our guests otherwise," the dark-haired one (Kíli) explained.

Tauriel and Sigrid looked at each other.

"Are you into some sort of kink? Because _Pearl_ and I only do the normal stuff, you know, like oral and vaginal," Tauriel made clear.

Kíli giggled. "I thought we were using real names here... but alright, I get it that you want to use your aliases. No, Fee and I are not into kink, we just want to ask you if you are okay with playing some video games with us?" he inquired while looking from one girl to the other, giving them the puppy eyes.

Tauriel and Sigrid exchanged another look. Somehow, during their whole career as escorts, that had been the most unusual request so far.


	2. Waking Up

My thanks go to **pallysdeeks** for her interest in this story!

* * *

When he woke up, Fíli immediately noticed that something was different. It wasn't only him and his brother together in their king sized bed, but there were two young women lying between them, one with dark blond curls (who was currently resting her head on his bare chest), the other with rather straight, red hair (spooned up by his little brother), both of them wearing nothing but their underwear, a lacy, black super push-up bra in case of the redhead, matching panties and stockings, whereas the natural blonde wore the same lingerie in white and Fíli thought that now he got the whole picture, the reason why the girls always worked together as they had revealed at like three am after he and his brother had gotten some absinthe into the girls and persuaded them to play some Sing Star _._ They were two halves of a whole, counterparts, like he and Kíli.

Fíli knew that the girls were prostitutes, schooled in letting men believe that they actually enjoyed what they were doing, but a part of him wanted to believe that _Pearl_ and _Starlet_ (or rather Sigrid and Tauriel as they were called in real life) had really liked the time they had spent with him and his brother. And he hoped that his uncle would hire them again.

So, carefully, Fíli disentangled himself from Sigrid and got up since he had to take a piss and was clearly in need of another fix of heroin. He knew that at some point in their lives he and his brother needed to stop doing all those drugs if they didn't want to end up like their uncle Frerin (if he was just their uncle and nothing more as rumour had it) who had been institutionalized a couple of years ago (when Fíli and his brother had still been in their teens) due to the psychosis he had developed because of his drug abuse, claiming that there were some beings he called 'Orcs' who repeatedly tried to kill him and his family.

Actually, it had been this tragedy that had resulted in their mother and their Uncle Thorin (again, if he too was only their uncle) to go into rehab (meaning that Fíli and Kíli had been put in foster care during that six months period), never taking drugs again or drinking any alcohol, although cigarettes and coffee were a different matter.

Out of habit, Fíli checked on his little brother before preparing everything for his fix because he knew that if he was going through cold turkey, Kíli would definitely do so as well. And if the sweat on his brother's forehead and the strangled sounds he made in his sleep were any indication, Kíli was also in need of a fix of heroin.

It wasn't a problem, though. Fíli still had enough junk for them and they could use their utensils from last night (tea light, spoon and syringe - yes, they always shared the same syringe, no matter how unsanitary that was) to take care of their drug addiction.

"Kíli!" he whispered into his brother's ear, putting his hand on the other's shoulder.

Kíli stirred. "Whassup?" he mumbled into the redhead's hair, tightening his grip on her waist like a little boy clinging to a stuffed animal.

Fíli sighed. Waking up his little brother had always been a very difficult task. So he tried again by shaking his brother's shoulder, saying his name again, louder this time.

"Kíli!"

His younger brother groaned, but disentangled himself from Starlet (Tauriel), sitting up and rubbing his eyes. Meanwhile, the girl had rolled onto her stomach, sighing in her sleep as if she had wanted to change her position for a long time but had been restricted by Kíli's grip on her.

"I'm tired, Fee, and don't feel too well, my head is pounding, my stomach, arms, and legs are hurting and I feel sick," he complained, "Why didn't you let me lie here with Tauriel? She is so warm and smells so nice."

Fíli rolled his eyes. His little brother sounded as if he was falling in love with a prostitute they had only met a couple of hours ago.

"You are clearly on cold turkey and need another fix, come on, baby bro, I've still got some heroin!" he explained, grabbing his brother's hand, pulling him to his feet. Obediently, Kíli followed his older brother into the living room, flopping down on the couch while Fíli prepared their fix. He had been seventeen when he had gotten addicted to heroin, after having tried pot, cocaine, and different pills. It had turned out that Nori, a family friend, had been very helpful when it had come to find some drug-induced happiness.

Of course, Kíli, being a nosy fourteen-year-old, had stumbled across Fíli in their room, being high like a kite, and had tried to follow his brother's example by using the rest of the drug in Fíli's syringe. Fíli had been furious, yet he had been a bad example, like their mother and their uncles (fathers?), so how could he blame his brother?

As always, Fíli prepared the first bang for his little brother, injecting the drug into his vein, then doing the same to himself, also collapsing on the couch.

Afterward, he didn't know how long they had been knocked out, but when they finally came to, the girls were gone.

"I couldn't even say goodbye to her, Fee," Kíli complained.

Fíli raised an eyebrow. "Her? Don't you mean them?" he countered.

Kíli snorted. "Yeah, whatever. Although, last night I got the impression that you hogged the blond one, Sigrid," he answered.

Fíli cleared his throat. "Anyway, Uncle paid them for spending time with us. That means they weren't here because they liked us but because the money was right," he explained.

Kíli pulled a face. "Well, thank you very much for reminding me, Fíli. My life is dreary enough as it is. At least, you could have left me with the illusion that we finally found some girls who enjoyed spending time with us," he pouted.

"Ach, Kíli," Fíli said, pulling his brother close, pressing their foreheads together, "one day everything will be alright for us and we will be just fine!"

Kíli frowned. "Oh yeah? You mean we will wake up and our lives will be normal, like everybody else's?" he asked for his brother's confirmation.

Fíli remained silent, just holding his baby brother, knowing that they were really screwed up.


	3. Innocence

I'd like to thank **pallysdeeks** for her comments!

* * *

Tilda was always happy when her older sister, Sigrid, came to fetch her from school, like today, especially when she wasn't alone but brought her friend Tauriel along.

"Sigrid!" she called, running towards the two young women, throwing herself into her sister's open arms.

"Tilda!" Sigrid exclaimed, pressing the smaller body of the eleven-year-old girl firmly against her chest. For a moment they just remained like that, holding each other close, inhaling the other's scent.

Tilda had only been one year old when their mother had been institutionalized because she had tried to kill her children and herself with sleeping pills. Fortunately, Sigrid had noticed that something had been wrong with their dessert and had called an ambulance so that they all had been saved.

Six months later, their father had been imprisoned for dealing in stolen goods so that some aunt - actually she was their mother's cousin - received custody for Tilda while Sigrid and Bain were put into a children's home. Apparently, this relative couldn't be bothered with taking care of three fucked up children who were too dependent on each other. That had been where finally a twelve-year-old Sigrid had met a fifteen-year-old Tauriel. They had immediately become friends.

"I didn't know that you would fetch me today, Auntie Clara didn't tell me this morning," Tilda said while freeing herself from her sister's embrace.

Sigrid beamed at her. "Well, she didn't know then, I only informed her about thirty minutes ago that Tau and I would come and get you," Sigrid elaborated, pushing a stray strand of Tilda's light brown hair behind the girl's ear, before adding, "What do you say, Tilly? We can have late lunch or early dinner together and then we can go to the zoo or to the cinema - whatever you prefer!"

Tilda smiled happily. She was fine with anything - as long as she was with Sigrid. Her older sister was very busy, going to college and working in order to earn a living, so it did happen only once or twice a week that Sigrid would come and fetch her to do something together, although they were skyping every day.

At least, she saw Sigrid more often than her brother or her father.

Although her father had been released from prison several years ago, her Aunt Clara had still custody for her and didn't approve of him visiting his daughter, claiming that he was a bad influence. And since Bain started living with their father again after some "incident" in foster care, he too wasn't a very welcome guest at her aunt's.

Sigrid, however, was in Aunt Clara's good book because she had overcome all obstacles in her life and grown into "a proper young lady," like Aunt Clara used to say. Tilda had no idea what that meant but she thought it had maybe something to do with Sigrid's immaculate appearance, always wearing fancy clothes, sporting pretty hairstyles and having perfect makeup on, just like her friend, Tauriel.

"Can I also have some ice cream instead of a late lunch? And then after going to the zoo, we can have dinner together," Tilda suggested.

Sigrid giggled, ruffling Tilda's hair. "Well, that sounds like a plan," Sigrid answered.

So, they did everything like Tilda had suggested and the girl was sure that her sister and her friend were enjoying themselves as much as Tilda did. Of course, they would; Tilda knew that neither her big sister nor her beautiful friend had a fairy-tale childhood. Maybe that was the reason why they liked spending time with her; they could pretend to be little girls again.

However, the afternoon went by too fast and after Sigrid had bought a huge plush koala and Tauriel a huge plush panda for Tilda at the shop in the zoo, they finally went to a fast food chain for some dinner. Actually, Sigrid and Tauriel had suggested to take her to a real restaurant but after Tilda had wanted to know whether they had chocolate milkshakes there and Tauriel had to admit that she didn't know, Tilda had insisted on them going to the fast-food restaurant.

It was where they had had dinner most of the time after their mother had become very sick and their father had been very busy with work, so for Tilda it was nostalgic.

Tauriel and Sigrid didn't seem to be too comfortable, though.

"Sig, what's wrong?", Tilda asked but her older sister just shook her head and smiled reassuringly. "Nothing, love, I'm just tired, it's been a long n-...day," she answered and Tilda frowned. Her sister was definitely keeping things from her... But why?

Before she could ask, someone called for Sigrid and Tauriel and when Tilda spun around like the older girls, she couldn't believe her eyes.

"Kíli and Fíli, hi," Tauriel said as if she was talking to the shop assistant in the grocery store and not _them_ \- the Durin Brothers; all the girls in Tilda's class had a crush on the handsome blond and the pretty brunet.

"You know them?" she gasped, squeezing Sigrid's hand.

Her sister drew her eyebrows together and looked down at her. "What?" she asked.

Tilda rolled her eyes. "Oh, Sig, have you been living under a rock? These are Fíli and Kíli Durin, they are an integral part of the Oakenshield's - don't you listen to music?"

Sigrid's eyes widened and Tilda would have found this hilarious if it weren't for the Durin Brothers walking over to them; Tilda thought that she would faint.

"Hello Sigrid, hello Tauriel, how are you?" the blond one, Fíli, asked.

"Oh, we're just fine, thank you," Tauriel answered since it seemed that Sigrid was rather speechless - like the brunet Durin Brother, Kíli.

Tilda would have giggled at the absurdity of the whole situation if it hadn't been for the blond Durin Brother to focussing his attention on her.

"And who is your little friend?" he wanted to know.

Immediately, Sigrid tried to push Tilda behind her back.

"What do you want from her? She's just an innocent little girl!" she snapped and Fíli raised his hands in a defensive gesture.

" _Sigrid_!" Tauriel hissed and Tilda could feel her sister relaxing.

"Sorry," she mumbled, "I'm rather protective of her - she's my little sister."

Fíli winked at her. "No problem. I know what it's like to be an older sibling - so never try to mess with Kíli, or else!" he joked.

Tilda decided that she really liked the guy.


End file.
